Faculty

mss AND DSS ProgramS in Transcendent Leadership

The faculty of the Transcendent Leadership Programs have joyfully co-created for you a curriculum that invites us to more deeply awaken to spiritual and soul awareness. Our intention for the program is to explore what it means to each of us to apply spiritual awareness with our loving, peaceful heart in our daily lives—that is the transcendent leader. 

Transcendent leadership is living love and taking action from that place of loving, with kindness, caring, and understanding of the growth and learning that comes with each breath.

We are each experiencing this beautiful energy of transcendent leadership consciousness as we facilitate the courses and engage with our beautiful students, who participate and influence what each course is and are an important part of the co-creation and sustaining of this sacred program. We invite you to join us and let’s see what we all bring forward with spirit. 

JOANIE CLINGAN, DSS, PH.D., DEAN of transcendent leadership

Doctor of Spiritual Science, Divine Leadership, Peace Theological Seminary, 2023; Ph.D., US Literature and Culture, Union Institute and University, 2008; MA, Spiritual Psychology, University of Santa Monica; BA, Humanities: Arts and Letters, Prescott College.

Joanie’s collaborative-leadership experience emerged in what she thinks of as an accidental academic career that began when she was registrar for PTS in the 1980s and chose to follow her heart and participate in the transformative graduate program in spiritual psychology at USM. That very personal choice led to a 25-year career in higher education before she returned to PTS in 2017. Joanie always described her academic leadership as cheerleader, knowing that her calling and greatest skill was that of champion of the faculty in a collaborative, co-creative process of program and curriculum development. Building teams that respect and listen to each other, and also love and value each other and their collaborative journey, has been a great joy for those involved. Joan served as the director of graduate studies at Prescott College for 20 years where her curriculum development work also included serving for more than ten years as chair of the M.A. program in humanities, and co-creating with her colleagues a Ph.D. program in sustainability education and a master of arts program in social justice and human rights, until as the Dean of Graduate Studies she retired in 2017.

Joanie has taught in graduate programs and advised master’s and doctoral students since 1993. Joanie’s research and teaching expertise is in literature, culture, and writing, as well as collaborative leadership, social justice, and sustainability. She has infused all of her work with an awareness and examination of love as an action and a way of being. While she was a graduate student, Joanie fell in love with the breadth, depth, and possibility of inquiry and research, and continues to teach graduate students critical and conscious approaches to inquiry, research design, and methods of inquiry. In addition to teaching at Prescott College and Peace Theological Seminary, Joanie has served in adjunct roles with the University of Santa Monica (as the research and relationship reader) and as a founding faculty member with Insight University.

In the summer of 2017 Joanie made the decision to retire from her work in higher education, and her first retirement (ad)venture was to return to the staff of PTS in service to bringing together yet another spectacularly gifted team of faculty to co-create and co-facilitate the new Master of Spiritual Science (MSS) program in Transcendent Leadership. After five beautiful years of serving PTS master’s students in TL, Joanie and the TL faculty, in partnership with Spirit, co-created a DSS program in Transcendent Leadership, which launched its first cohort in August 2023.

Select Publications:

“Divine Leading Divine: My Song of Transcendence.” Practical Treatise. Peace Theological Seminary, Los Angeles, CA. June 2023.

“A Pedagogy of Love.” The Journal of Sustainability Education. Prescott College, Prescott, AZ. March 2015.

Guest editor. Sustainability: What’s Love Got to Do with It? The Journal of Sustainability Education, Prescott College, 2015.

Who Is We: Toward a Theory of Solidarity; Toward a Future of Sustainability. University Microfilms. 2008.

“I see leadership as modeling a particular way of being. Sometimes we’re conscious of our choices about what we model; sometimes not so much. In the Transcendent Leadership programs we are strengthening a global movement toward an intentional way of being that honors the divine in each of us and acts accordingly.” —Joanie Clingan

Andrée Leighton, PH.D.

Ph.D., Political Science, Temple University 1998; BA, Political Science and Spanish, Cabrini University.

2024 UPDATE Coming this Weekend: Andrée has been joyfully teaching political science, philosophy, and humanities courses to undergraduates and adult learners for almost thirty years. She works extensively with a variety of academic learning communities, leadership teams, and advisory councils focused on innovation and creativity. She has also mentored undergraduate research about women’s leadership during the American Revolution and artistic projects exploring how social change happens. Andrée is tremendously grateful for her spiritual practice and loves coming together with people to share and amplify the experience of love, truth, and goodness that comes from Spirit.

“One way of relating to transcendent leadership is that it comes from our being — how we be with ourselves and each other in all the contexts and roles and situations we find ourselves in. When we come together in love and let Spirit lead, we lift. It’s a natural process. Let’s learn and grow and have fun together as transcendent leaders.” —Andrée Leighton

Barney Singer, JD

JD, School of Law, Case Western Reserve University, 1986; MA, Spiritual Psychology, University of Santa Monica; BS, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University.

A social change leader with more than 30 years of multi-disciplinary experience in the public and private sectors, Barney Singer currently serves as Director of the Leadership and Capacity Development Programs Division for FHI 360, an international nonprofit organization working on public health, education, social development and behavior change programs in the U.S. and developing countries around the world. Mr. Singer oversees the development, design and implementation of health services research, civil society, behavior change, and capacity building initiatives that have empowered civil society leaders in 55 countries.

Mr. Singer is also a Senior Technical Advisor on FHI 360’s SCALE+ methodology, a systems-integration approach for multi-sectoral programming to heighten development impacts. He oversees a portfolio of programs valued at more than $300 million, for which he ensures compliance with U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of State and foundation policies and regulations.

From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Singer served as an adjunct professor on the faculty of The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, developing and teaching a graduate-level course on Civil Society and Development. From 2011 to 2017, he served on the faculty of Insight University to design and teach Law and Ethics in Leadership in the doctoral program. Mr. Singer is a seasoned leader with advanced degrees in both law and psychology. His technical experience includes social marketing and behavior change methodologies, strategic communications, change management, organizational development, substance abuse prevention and addiction, HIV/AIDS and co-occurring disorders, community mobilization and engagement, and youth issues. Mr. Singer brings a unitive consciousness to the design and implementation of programs in the U.S. and internationally, based in part of Transcendent Leadership.

Select Publications:
“Capacity Development Interventions Guide: A Manual for Program Designers.” FHI 360, Executive Editor, 2018.
The Kellogg Southern Africa Leadership Programme: A Legacy of Leadership. FHI 360, Executive Editor, 2014.
“Bridge Media: Connecting Conflicted Communities.” AED, Executive Producer, 2008.

“We have the opportunity to support ourselves and each other to transcend current circumstances and habits of mind that limit us in this world. What greater gift could we embrace than a new way of being?” —Barney Singer

David Whitaker, MFA

MFA, University of California Los Angeles, 2013; MA, Spiritual Psychology with an Emphasis in Consciousness, Health, and Healing, University of Santa Monica; BA, Art Practice, BA, Anthropology, University of California Berkeley.

For David Whitaker, life is all about the people. Collaboration, connection, and communication are the hallmarks of his creative practice. In graduate school, David used his art studio as a space for connecting to his heart and allowing that energy to guide him in his creation of pottery and writing. The results were two-fold: a project of giving and gratitude entitled, A Cup and A Letter for Everyone I Know and an educational project called, Your Art Is Yours.

After graduating from UCLA, David continued to work with artists in both formal and informal contexts, leading groups in galleries, studios, cafes, and homes to support emerging artists in identifying and creating the work that is most vital for them. David began volunteering for MSIA, where he was eventually hired. In addition to being on the TL Faculty, he is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy.

David strives to follow spirit in his life each day, taking a practical approach to spirituality, one that is a balance of inner exploration and outer action. The bottom line? Doing what works and letting go of everything else.

“Transcendent leadership is the awakening of the transcendent leader in each one of us and then asking, ‘Now what?’” —David Whitaker

Jeffrey Morgan, JD

JD, Certificate in International Legal Studies, McGeorge School of Law, 2011; BA, Philosophy, BA, English Literature, University of the Pacific.

As an attorney in the emerging field of Integrative Law, Jeffrey has advised a variety of clients in software development, consumer electronics, entertainment, emerging technologies, and graphic design. Jeffrey’s spiritual practice has always been the focal point of his life, and, as an attorney, he works to bring holistic value to his clients through the consciousness and inner awareness that he continues to cultivate. Integrating the holistic focus of practical spirituality into the highest level of professional service has become a major focus of Jeffrey’s professional career.

Jeffrey has the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors and as General Counsel of Insight Seminars, an educational non-profit devoted to heart-centered, personal growth education.

“I am here to grow and learn about Transcendent Leadership with you, a leadership that sources from the absolute center of Truth within us and can permeate every aspect of how we think, listen, reflect, communicate, and grow. In my experience, Transcendent Leadership starts from within me: peace begins with me, awareness begins with me, and this journey of transcendence begins with me right here in this most perfect Now.” —Jeffrey Morgan

Karen Faherty, Ph.D.

Ph.D., Health Psychology, Yeshiva University, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, 1996; MSS Spiritual Science, Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy; MA Applied Psychology, University of Santa Monica; BA, English, University of Pennsylvania. 

Throughout the past 30 plus years of spiritual practice and work, Karen Faherty Rosen has developed a passion for tracking the spirit, riding its currents and letting the wisdom and the heart of spirit infuse her life and work. As a lifelong learner, Karen’s professional role as a psychologist has served as a container for growth, development, and healing. She has witnessed and integrated an abundance of wisdom and knowledge from many disciplines including human development, social psychology and trauma, neurocognitive sciences, and health and eco-psychology. Through her on-going work in the community and in private practice, Karen continues refining the crafts of counseling, coaching, and education for self healing and transformation of consciousness.

Karen’s formal leadership training came through Insight University’s doctoral program in Transformational Leadership. She is aware of leadership arising in reflexive response to the presence and present moment as an expression of love having its way. As an educator, Karen holds space for love’s emergence, and does her best to discern, choose, and live in resonance, in synchrony, and in harmony with this while maintaining her focus on health, well-being, and service for the highest good. Karen looks for joy, humor, and play in the expression of leadership; she finds fulfillment in collaboration, creativity, and shared depths of intimacy. She has been marrying Rich Rosen since 1996. Together they live near the beach in NJ where they raised two children and tend the garden. 

Lili Goodman Freitas, Ph.D.

Ph.D., Folklore-Folklife, University of Pennsylvania, 1990; DSS, Spiritual Science, Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy; MA, Applied Psychology, University of Santa Monica; MSSA, Social Work, Social Science Administration, Case Western Reserve University; BA, Psychology, Wesleyan University.

Lili has over three decades of experience teaching and leading in academia, inspiring students and faculty to cultivate greater expressions of acceptance, loving, peace, authenticity, and compassion. She served as the former chair of the Psychology and Consciousness program as well chair for the Department of Liberal Arts at John F. Kennedy University, and was on faculty at University of Santa Monica for over 25 years where she taught in the Counseling Psychology program and the M.A. program in Spiritual Psychology. While at USM, she co-created and co-facilitated the Soul Centered Leadership Certificate with Dr. Ron Hulnick, and co-created the Consciousness, Health, and Healing curriculum with Dr. Mary Hulnick and Dr. Marya Foley. She’s served as doctoral faculty, Director of Student Evaluation, and the Dissertation Director of Meridian University in Petaluma, California.

Lili has a strong commitment to community and international service and is the 2016 Recipient of the Citation for Meritorious Service from the Trustees of the Rotary Foundation for her leadership with the Rotary District 5130 Peace Fellows Committee for over 10 years.  When she’s not working she loves to travel, connect with friends and family across cultures,  garden, cook, and play music with the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers. 

“I see transcendent leadership as an experience of catalyzing and serving ourselves others from a loving consciousness. It is the cultivation and expression of a way of being that springs forth from an attunement to the internal wellspring of God’s loving, and calls us forward to greater levels of awareness, participation, momentum, and love.” —Lili Goodman Freitas

Linda Whitaker, Ph.D.

Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Professional School of Psychological Studies, 1988; MA, Spiritual Psychology, University of Santa Monica; M.Ed. Organization and Human Resource and Development, University of Vermont; BA, English, University of Vermont.

Linda Whitaker has been a faculty member of the University of Santa Monica since 1983 and, in that capacity, was part of creating and implementing the Counseling Psychology Program in 1992. She participated in the design and co-facilitation of four Counseling Psychology courses: Values, Laws, and Ethics for the Professional Counselor, Counseling Children and Adolescents, Spiritual Psychology and Marriage and Family Counseling, and Spiritual Psychology and Group Process.

In her practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California, Linda has counseled individuals, couples, and families, assisting them in creating more positive and uplifting life experiences. She has also worked as an elementary school guidance counselor and classroom teacher, and, during that time, assisted her school in receiving its International Baccalaureate authorization.

As a consultant both in education and business, Dr. Whitaker has worked with crisis intervention and stress management with Lockheed Martin and with teachers in the Palmdale School District to promote positive self-esteem in the classroom. She has also been an EAP evaluator with Value Behavioral Health, Blue Cross, and National Resource Consultants. As a faculty member at Chapman University, Linda supervised student teachers in the Palmdale Public School system.

At this time, she is delighted to be part of the PTS Transcendent Leadership faculty.

“There is a place I am in consciousness when I surrender to being fully present. There is a shift in energy, a feeling of fullness, of openness to greater awareness, intuition, and direct knowing. In this place, which I call grace, I am aware of my connection with spirit. Words come present without thinking. It’s a quiet place, and full of energy. The work of transcendent leadership happens in this place of peace and loving.” —Linda Whitaker